J28 Polaris and her calf J46
7/23/2010: We headed southward for our morning trip today. We found L-pod orcas just southeast of False Bay. It was L5, Tanya, L84, Nyssa, L54, Ino, L108, Coho, and others. They were all spread out and appeared to be hunting down salmon for the entire time we watched them. We spent most of our time with big Nyssa, Ino, and Coho during this trip. We went in a totally different direction for our afternoon trip. We heard that some other orcas were coming down from Canada so we decided to try and meet up with them. We cruised through the inner islands and reached J-pod orcas just as they reached Turn Point. The late afternoon light was beautiful on them as they swam against the rocky shoreline. We started out watching J16, Slick, J26, Mike, J33, Keet, J36, and J42, Echo. Next J1 Ruffles came by. Then we cruised over to watch a group of orcas that we noticed were was just rolling around in the same spot for a long period of time. It was J14, Samish, J30, Riptide, J40, Suttles, J37 and others. They were rolling around, spyhopping, splashing, falling all over each other, vocalizing above the surface, tailslapping, and more. It was an incredible show that lasted for about a half an hour. The orcas hardly moved at all while they were doing all this interaction. It seemed to draw lots of attention because the rest of the orcas, which had already headed southward, turned around and all started swimming northward toward our active group. J2, Granny came swimming over,and J28, Polaris, and her calf J46 also came over among many others. It was so difficult to say goodbye to these orcas. All the passengers knew they had witnessed something very special tonight! It was one of the best shows of the year! Naturalist Bart Rulon.
